Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/46

38, the enemy's whole line gave way, and our advance took possession of the camp and batteries against which the charge was made. I then sent orders to Colonel Pond to advance rapidly the Third brigade, swinging to the right, meeting the development of the enemy's line of fire sweeping the camps on the left and to prevent surprise on his left flank. Subsequently, I sent orders to Colonel Looney, Thirty-eighth Tennessee regiment, and the section of Ketchum's battery, then on the Owl Creek road, to conform to these movements. In the meantime, the First brigade (Gibson's), united with Brigadier-General Hindman's advance, after having driven the enemy from their camp on our right, engaged in repeated charges against the enemy's new line, now held on the margin of an open field swept by his fire. The enemy's camps on our left being apparently cleared, I endeavored to concentrate forces on his right flank in this new position, and directed Captain Hodgson's battery into action there. The fire from this battery and a charge from the Second brigade put the enemy to flight. Even after having been driven back from this position, the enemy rallied and disputed the ground with remarkable tenacity, for some two or three hours, against our forces in front, and his right flank, where cavalry, infantry and artillery mingled in the conflict.

As the enemy finally gave way, I directed the movement of the Second brigade towards the right along the crest of the ridge following the line of the enemy's continued resistance, and sent a section of Ketchum's battery into action on a road leading towards Pittsburg, in a position overlooking the broken slope below, to reply to batteries nearly in front and in the forest to the right, with which the enemy swept a large circuit around; sending also Colonel Smith's Louisiana Crescent regiment (Third brigade) to support this battery, then harassed by skirmishers, and to seize the opportunity to charge the enemy's position. I then put a section of guns, [commanded by First Lieutenant James C. Thrall, belonging to Captain George T. Hubbard's Arkansas battery], in position on the road leading along the ridge still farther to the right, which was soon forced to retire under the concentrated fire of the enemy's artillery.

Discovering the enemy in considerable numbers moving through the forest on the lower margin of the open field in front, I obtained Trabue's and Stanford's light batteries and brought them into action, and directed their fire on masses of the enemy then pressing forward towards our right engaged in a fierce contest with our forces then advancing against him in that direction.